★☆☆☆☆

Meat Wave: what a name. Too bad about the band.

Their latest offering, Delusion Moon – what one would expect to be a rollicking ride through the obscene and obscure – is more just a tour de force of what not to do on a punk record.

Meat Wave sound like early The Horrors and The Cramps got together and had a baby, that baby fell in love with Fidlar, and then this is their child – but unfortunately the child thinks it’s far more talented than it is. The lyrics to most of the songs are technocentric, like in ‘Network’. Oh, the foibles of the modern world. And then there’s the chorus from ‘Witchcraft’ – “I never meant to throw your computer out the window” – whichsounds ultimately insincere. Despite all this, there are some shining moments on an otherwise aggressively mediocre release, such as ‘Sham King’, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before.

This kind of garage rock/punk hybrid that’s resurfacing at the moment needs to be sincere – which is why The Orwells have killed it, why Fidlar are going gangbusters, and hell, even Dune Rats are doing well.

Unfortunately for Meat Wave, they’re a couple of clean-cut white boys trying to be weird and out there. I’m not buying it.

Meat Wave’sDelusion Moonis available through SideOneDummy.

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